How much of a leaf cover do you need for that? I don't really know. This is the first time I am planting in the front yard woods, after picking up sticks and limbs, trimming up some trees, pulling up tree seedlings, pulling up 'some' vines, and digging out lots and lots of May Apples, and raking aside all the leaf cover. Stringing the rows and doing the actual planting is the easiest part of the whole planting experience. I'd say the leaf cover is at least 6" or so. I kept watching the weatherunderground on the computer all day, hoping it would get warm. Even though it wasn't warm at 4 PM (was just 34 though it was sunny) I headed out to get a few planted. Surprisingly, I wasn't cold, the soil was wet, but not clumpy, my hands didn't get cold, and I managed to plant 15 little bags, 47 total bulbs. so all those from the front yard (city tree) went to the city for composting. How I wish I had trees that weren't all in the woods or at the edge of the woods. All the leaves at the edges of the yard are full of sticks and twigs. I used to sometimes go to friend's houses and do their leaves, just to get to bring them all home for the veggie garden. I've got this wonderful leaf shredder that reduces them 13 to 1, turning leaves into what I call brown gold. I think the little willow leaves should be fine. Last year I remember "discovering" that the open areas were frozen solid while those with some cover were not. I might be able to exploit that some year if I knew what to aim for. How deep? I wonder if you couldn't just cover an area with either clear plastic or black plastic to keep the warm in and the freezing cold out, thus lengthening the planting season so you could get in on the late sales, like from B and B's.

In an ideal world, people would not be applying herbicides and pesticides on their lawn and all that town made compost would be a great resource. I would actually feel it was more beneficial if they made leaf mold with all the collected leaves, because no one adds chemicals to their leaves. Until then I am always short on compost but if you have land to have a garden you can usually find space for a small compost pile. Even if you just have a passive one, and leave it to break down, it's a great resource. The past few years I've been building Berms. I collect branches broken in smaller pieces, grass, leaves, weeds, and kitchen scraps in two plastic bins and when they are half finished, I empty them into a wheel barrel, pile them up along the lower end of my full sun bed, and shape it like a sausage about 1.5 to 2ft high, top it off with leaves and then bagged bark mulch and it's done. I leave it in place and it actually helps keep the rainwater in the bed and doesn't allow it to run off. And I was very surprised at how good the soil was before the summer was even over. What I love about it, is it is so easy to do and I know what is in it. This past fall, I covered 3 vegetable beds for next year with it's own 2ft high berm and instead of bark mulch, I put a thick layer of salt marsh high as a topper. I'm excited to see how the soil is in the spring.

Haha I love the picture. It clarifies why your family is upset. Same thing happens to me sometimes. I think rule number 1 is try to keep the pile away from the house, or anybody's house for that matter. Also, when the police find the body, you can arrange the alibi better. If you can find a day when everyone is away, consider just digging it up and moving it. A dirty job, but it solves the problem. I would compost in a fallow bed rather than near my house. Moving the pile is the direct approach to getting the smell away from people. After all, the pile is not a huge problem, it is the location. This method is guaranteed to be effective for anybody but Raymond Burr in Rear Window. Maybe chemistry can help. Wood ash will raise pH. That might get rid of your boggy smell. Sawdust will soak things up a little and raise C if too much N is your problem. Neither will bring catastrophe if you are wrong in guessing the cause. Lime and or wood chips might be your last resorts in this category. Barring that, I would go for cover. Two weeks is likely to be enough. Leaves>cardboard>tarp Just keep going until you cannot smell it. Open it up when people are not around. Then you can check it and air it out or turn it. It might go anaerobic or continue to be so, but that will end eventually as you keep turning it, reduce cover, and get back to normal. I have tried all of these things in different situations, none involving victims of foul play. Is the smell really that bad? You have not mentioned insects or vermin problems. Have you considered a new family? haha!

Westelle, I'd like to see that photo, thanks! Wanda, I've been looking at photos of clematis winding around with climbing roses and got that idea. Didn't realize they weren't an evergreen, hadn't gotten that far in my planning yet, thanks. I am so used to plants that do die back in the winter. Lowe's, HD etc are like candy stores to me and alot of times the info is not complete especially zone info and I thought I plotted carefully for what I did put in the yard. I was thinking dips below 32 and primarily how hot summer is here, had no idea we were going to have two weeks straight so far below freezing. BTW they were 2 degrees off last night, it was 26 not 28 and when I got up at 8am the back yard temp said it was 24 and from the frost on the ground I believe that one! I'll look up the ones you're advising on with the exception of Star Jasmine. I really love the smell of the flowers and love it in someone else's yard:) I would have thought that the way your back yard is enclosed your plants would have made it through better, sorry they didn't, you had some great looking plants, amazing what did survive. What will you do on the others, I know you're waiting for spring, but will you cut them all down or just cut back to where new growth starts on each plant at whatever height that is? Thanks for sharing your photos too. You can't measure in money your time and years in your plants, well you can, they'd be very, very expensive plants. I forgot my one verbena didn't make it through this freeze and my 8 lantana were toast from the first freeze. On a bright note I do have bulbs that are growing. I know what I planted but the writing washed off the stakes:) I'm trying to figure out where the crocus' are, in the mountains they'd be growing first by now and blooming soon, here I don't know, it looks like what's coming up now are iris. I planted those two, daffodils and narcissus. So I do have some color to look forward to while waiting to replant in the spring. Leslie